Homicidal (1961)

Not bad William Castle shocker stars the talented Joan Marshall as Emily, a strange young blonde who convinces Jim Nesbitt (Richard Rust), a hotel bellboy, to marry her in a hurry. But when they meet with Mr. Adrims (James Westerfield), a justice of the peace, she promptly murders Adrims in cold blood! She then hightails it out of town, returning to what was apparently her former life as nursemaid to mute invalid Helga Swenson (Eugenie Leontovich). And strange family secrets are forced to the surface as Emily interacts with Helga, Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin), and Miriams' boyfriend Karl Anderson (Glenn Corbett).Mildly gimmicky movie waits until almost the end for Castle to come up with one of his trademark tricks. In this case, it's the "fright break", giving traumatized audience members a chance to leave the theatre if they feel that they won't be able to handle the climax. "Homicidal" is strange, and pretty entertaining, but the fact that it's so clearly inspired by "Psycho" hampers some of its effectiveness - and lends it a degree of predictability. (We even get a scene near the end of characters explaining the plot in case we didn't get it.) The atmosphere is good, the suspense works, and there's just a little bit of gore.The cast, also including Alan Bunce as Doctor Jonas and Gilbert Green as Lt. Miller, is game. The one who definitely comes off the best is Marshall (who gets an "introducing" credit here, under the pseudonym Jean Arless).Nothing great, but engaging up to a point.Six out of 10.

In the very first scene we are introduced to director Bill Castle, who gave us such movies as "Macabre" (1958), "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), and "Strait-Jacket" (1964). Some of his gimmicks included Emergo (a glow in the dark skeleton seen above theater audiences), Percepto (vibrating device attached to some theater chairs) and Illusiono (red and blue cellophane strips for one to see/not see the ghosts in a movie). In "Homicidal" he used the "Fright Break," where audience members saw a 45-second timer on screen; they could leave their seats and get a full admission refund in Coward's Corner, assuming a too frightful climax.In the second scene we observe two children, a boy and girl. The strange-looking boy with big teeth takes a doll from the girl and smirks. "Warren, Warren, it's mine," utters the girl. There is something odd about the boy. Later we will understand that the two are Warren and Miriam, half-brother and half-sister (same father). Now we fast-forward 13 years to the early 1960s; the kids are grown up. Warren still has big teeth.In the next scene, a blonde woman calling herself Miriam Webster (Jean Arless / Joan Marshall) checks into a hotel and offers a bellhop $2,000 to marry her with the understanding that the marriage will be quickly annulled. He likes the quick cash and agrees. Ms. Webster has a specific justice of the peace in mind, so they drive out to Ventura, California and convince Adrins (James Westerfield) to conduct the midnight ceremony. At its end she pulls out a long knife and stabs Adrins a number of times in the midsection, with blood pouring and with her facial features contorted in murderous hatred. The homicidal one easily escapes from Adrin's shocked wife and bellhop, and drives his car to her own auto, which she then uses from this point on. In the next scene, we learn that Miriam Webster's real name is Emily. She is a caretaker for a wheelchair-bound mute, Helga (Eugenie Leontovich). Helga knows secrets but cannot speak, and is terrified of Emily, who enjoys torturing her verbally. She quickly tells Helga that Adrins died. Helga was Miriam and Warren's nanny. Grown up Miriam Webster is a florist in the attractive Danish-looking town of Solvang, California. She and Emily dislike each other. Emily flirts with Karl (Glen Corbett), a pharmacist who dates Miriam.Earlier Helga had taken Warren on an ambiguous trip to Denmark. There, Warren had met and secretly married Emily. One evening Emily lies to Karl, thus preventing him from seeing Miriam. Emily breaks into Miriam's flower shop and trashes things; when Karl enters she cracks him over the head and leaves. When he awakens he is staring into the face of Warren. We learn that Miriam and Warren suffered mightily at the hands of Helga (who was a nasty person) and their equally nasty father. Now Warren, strange looking and slightly built, seems to be a confidante of sorts for half-sister Miriam. In two days he will be 21 years old and – AS A MALE – will inherit $10 million. meanwhile, Emily wants to dispose of Helga and Miriam.SPOILERS - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WANT A THOROUGH EXPLANATION:Greed and psychosis are the issues. There are an evil mom, a weird dad, a bad nanny, and a seedy justice of the peace. The dead wealthy father wanted a son; the mother and nanny raised the daughter like a son to placate him. Adrins went along with the scheme. So there is child abuse (with a whip to toughen up the obviously effeminate Warren) and gender distortion as a male will inherit $10 million, not Miriam, a female! After the horrible Helga is decapitated, Miriam is in the homicidal clutches of Emily and cries for Warren. Emily pulls off her wig and reveals herself as Warren. Emily's motive for killing Adrins and Helga is revenge against their sinister plot to raise Emily as Warren (and to devastate Emily's life along the way). As she is so crazy with murderous revenge she does not radiate sympathy. Miriam's issue differs; she obviously did not know that Warren was a girl (?). Perhaps there is just a sibling rivalry. Note when "Warren" tells Miriam that "he" has already killed Emily. Is it possible that an Emily did exist in Denmark all along? So Warren killed her to assume her identity, to have Emily do the dirty work for Warren? Pretty crazy stuff for 1961! But, discounting this information, there are still plot holes:PLOT HOLE #1: How could Miriam be so naïve about Emily/Warren's gender? She was her half-sibling after all.PLOT HOLE #2: Emily gives the name of "Miriam Webster" to the hotel folks to incriminate her. But it would be obvious that Miriam's dissimilar likeness would be an alibi. Did Emily not realize that the police would show up at Miriam's flower shop in Solvang to investigate, leading the police almost to Emily's very doorstep? So why did Emily decide to kill Miriam, who was apparently unaware of the wicked scheme?PLOT HOLE #3: Why did the adults want Warren to gain the inheritance in the first place? "He" would get the cash, not them. So again, why kill Miriam? Was there a deal to split the cash? While it certainly borrows quite a few scenes from "Psycho," "Homicidal" stands on its own with its peculiar gender-twisting plot. Overall, the acting is not bad. By the way, Warren's voice was NOT dubbed. The actress Joan Marshall had the uncanny ability to lower her voice range to sound like a man. It adds to the creepiness, like the eerie indoor shots. They called Bill Castle schlock-meister, but he certainly had his following. He was the type of guy who would spend $100,000 for a movie and make $2 million. He made his mark, and since his passing we have not seen the likes of him.

Since I knew this was a William Castle film I knew what to expect gimmick wise but not plot. Halfway through when we see the "Warren" character, I knew why it seemed familiar...Psycho!!! This film is for those who just watch em to get a kick and don't really look too deep. Unfortunately for me I dig in films to see and when the "Warren" character arrives I knew he and the "Emily" character were one in the same. Unless you are blind you couldn't miss it. This may have fooled people back in 1961 but it didn't slip by me at all.The only thing that held me to this was why the character was doing this. I mean you know right off this chick/guy...or whatever they were...was a little bit off...but you really don't get the answers until the very last minute. With that, it cleared things up and I had the answers I was looking for.This isn't a blatant ripoff of Psycho at all. It just has 1 of the same story devices...guy or girl dressing up as a guy or girl etc. Everything else is a bit different so it's was no rip-off. I imagine if you need somethin' to watch on a lonely Saturday night this will fill the bill. If you miss it, don't shed a tear.

If you can't afford to catch Psycho at the local revival house, this is the movie to see. While it's clear that Homicidal had no pretensions of seriousness or originality, the camp fun is marred by lapses into incompetence. It's starts off with a bang and then bogs down into an endless talky exposition. But then, it attracted an audience that required careful explanation. While it probably stands as the only picture ever set in Solvang, they made disappointingly little use of the town's attributes as a miniature golf course version of Denmark. The references to Denmark also were a tipoff to the gender bending plot gimmick at the heart of the picture, due to that country's early 60s reputation for leadership in sex change surgery. I would also have to say that Leonie Leontovich had the makings of a great rap artist, conveying a surprisingly nuanced range of emotional subtleties in her non-speaking part. A shame, really, that she was neither seen nor heard more widely in the movies.